A new set of ‘Four Questions’ for anti-Israel protesters

The Hill ^ | April 25, 2024 | Steve Israel

[Reno89519]

…

Question 1: On Oct. 7, the terrorist group Hamas slaughtered young Israelis at a music festival as well as other civilians in surrounding communities. They murdered, stabbed, shot, raped, beheaded, burned. They forced children to watch the butchering of parents. They cut off the breasts of women. They killed the defenseless elderly. They abducted and continue to hold innocent civilians hostage.

Did you protest that massacre in the days, weeks, months after Oct. 7. At least once? Did you fly flags, wave banners, demand justice? If not, why not? Why do you protest only Israel?

Question 2: In the ongoing civil war in Sudan, at least 13,000 to 15,000 people have been killed and 33,000 others injured. Over 6.5 million are internally displaced and more than 2 million others have fled the country as refugees. Here too, innocents have been beaten, burned, raped, tortured, murdered. Meanwhile, according to the human rights group Oxfam, Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has killed more than 10,500 civilians, including 587 children, “as constant bombardments, mines, and drone attacks have left a generation traumatized, displaced, and fearful for their lives.”

Have you protested the grotesque and persistent war crimes in Sudan or Ukraine? If not, why not? Why do civilians in Sudan or Sevastopol seem less important to you than in Gaza? Why do you protest only Israel?

Question 3: In Gaza, Hamas violated international law with a heinous military doctrine that forced its own innocent civilians to become Israeli military targets. It embedded weapons systems in hospitals, schools and residential apartments. (Many foretold the strategy on day one: Hamas massacres Israelis, Israel responds by targeting Hamas weapons in civilian infrastructure, casualties skyrocket, the world turns on Israel, the university protests ignite).

Have you protested Hamas’s illegal tactics of deliberately putting innocents in harm’s way? Have you demanded boycotts, divestment, sanctions for nations that fund, enable and empower Hamas’s crimes against humanity? If not, why not? Why do you protest only Israel?

Question 4: You chant: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.” Recent history offers factual perspective on this possibility. In 2005, Israel withdrew from Gaza. How did this small slice of land on the Mediterranean use its freedom? Within days, it became a launchpad of unprovoked rocket attacks on Israel.

And while Israel has managed to make peace with Muslim neighbors in Northern Africa, Jordan, the Gulf and elsewhere, Hamas has never relented from waging war, digging tunnels, firing rockets, kidnapping Israelis. In fact, the Hamas charter continues to insist that the geographic borders of Palestine extend “from the River Jordan in the east to the Mediterranean in the west and from Ras Al-Naqurah in the north to Umm Al-Rashrash in the south,” i.e. the entirety of Israel, the Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.

When you chant from the Hamas charter for the national liberation of Palestinians, do you not understand how Jews arrived in what is now Israel millennia ago? It was a national liberation movement, the freeing of slaves and their search for a land where they could express their identity safely. And while I’m asking — why is it that while I support a two-state solution in which Jews and Palestinians live with full rights, your chant seems to support the purging of one? Why do you protest only the presence of Israel?

Free expression is easy when it’s just the hurling of slogans and flying of banners. Free thinking is much harder. It obligates us to question our own hypocrisies, shallow assumptions and, yes, implicit biases. It forces us beyond our tribal truths, broadens our apertures, breaks down the echo chambers. It’s often solitary — based on uncomfortable whispers versus the monopoly of a megaphone.

I happen to teach at a prominent university. I’ve had the privilege of speaking quietly with students with opinions on all sides of the conflict. They represent a wide range of faiths, races and backgrounds. They reflect strong opinions from far right to far left. These conversations don’t capture headlines and news cameras. They’re not disruptions but dialogues. Not sloganeering but soul-searching. They seek the possibility of answers by leaving room for challenging questions.

This Passover, to the campus occupiers who chant in a (perhaps) well-intentioned demand for justice, I repeat not the Four Questions, but the one that matters most: Why do you protest only Israel?

[Reno89519]

Will they even consider the questions?

[bk1000]

One shouldn’t engage with those people. You aren’t going to convince them of anything. Why waste your breath?

[KarlInOhio]

You chant: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free.”

I think the original version of this was "From the Volga River to the North Sea, Europe will be Jew free".

[Big Red Badger]

Consider The Questions ?
.
No....to many words.
They are Only college students.

[God luvs America]

5- why won’t you volunteer yourself as a human shield for your brave hamas fighters?

6- if Aaron Bushnell is your hero why don’t you follow in his footsteps?

7- when will you be traveling to gaza to begin your training as a suicide bomber?

[maddog55]

I think I saw about 16 questions in the 4.

The best question is: Are you that fxxking stupid?

[monkeyshine]

This is a collection of agitators rounding up Jew haters and supported by a collection of ignorant people brainwashed by a sophomoric oppressed/oppressor narrative who have no sense of scope or perspective or just looking for something new to be outraged about.

It makes for good television, but on all these campuses there are maybe 20,000 to 40,000 students and just a couple of hundred protestors. They won’t answer your questions. If they were just protesting peacefully they could be safely ignored. They are not peaceful and the leaders are full of hate supported by a small crowd of the stupid.

Talking about relative atrocities is the wrong approach. Someone in high power, like the President, should show some moral courage and tell it like it is - the Palestinian people’s hopes and dreams have been dashed by their own leaders for decades. All they ever needed to do was stop fighting with Israel and focus on building their own future. The Palestinians are oppressed by their own repressive, dogmatic leadership. Continuing to talk about relativism, continuing to coddle the Palestinians with the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations’ is the wrong approach. The Palestinians live on the largesse of donors including the US. We pressure Israel but we don’t pressure the Palestinians to conduct themselves with human decency. We should demand of them some accountability.

[TexasGator]

“They are Only college students.”

Like the past, the are useful idiots.

[Rummyfan]

All good questions…. But most of these useful idiots don’t even know what or why they’re protesting.

[Libloather]

Question 5: What happened to the ceasefire on Oct. 6?

[Rummyfan]

From the river to the sea…. They don’t know if it’s the Nile, the Rhine, or the Mississippi.

[GOPJ]

They murdered, stabbed, shot, raped, beheaded, burned. They forced children to watch the butchering of parents. They cut off the breasts of women. They killed the defenseless elderly. They abducted and continue to hold innocent civilians hostage.

Anyone notice the breathless bimbos and pretentious 'men' of MSNBC are still talking more about Jan 6th an 'occupy Congress' riot than about the slaughter of October 7th. How is that possible.

January 6th with no fires, no rapes, no murders, no mutilations, no graffiti, no predisposition weapons and props, no walking around money, no tent cities, no organizers, no 'on site' feeding stations, no signs delivered... and last but no least, no drummers.

And yet even today - over two years later - more time allocated on "Morning Joe' about Jan 6th than about October 7th. It's telling.

[Loud Mime]

bump

[Sunsong]

This:

“Someone in high power, like the President, should show some moral courage and tell it like it is - the Palestinian people’s hopes and dreams have been dashed by their own leaders for decades. All they ever needed to do was stop fighting with Israel and focus on building their own future. The Palestinians are oppressed by their own repressive, dogmatic leadership. Continuing to talk about relativism, continuing to coddle the Palestinians with the ‘soft bigotry of low expectations’ is the wrong approach. The Palestinians live on the largesse of donors including the US. We pressure Israel but we don’t pressure the Palestinians to conduct themselves with human decency. We should demand of them some accountability.”

[R_Kangel]

....... Well ..... Whenever  I am asked what my feelings are about what  Israel is doing in Gaza .... I usually respond with the same answer. I always say: "Well, I think too many people are being used by their chosen designated cause  as Useful Idiots to effect their objectives. If you don't know what the term Useful Idiot means .... Look it up."

..... They are usually left with a hilarious puzzled look on their face  and I know they will Google that term as soon as I walk away with a smile on my face ....

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